December 11th

No more Littérature Comparée! Although it sucked last week, it feels awesome now. So glad that final is over, thank you literature classes you really came through for me. Oh yeah, the final exam system here is completely screwy. To give you an idea audience, most professors don't know when their final is let alone drafted a rough sketch of the test. It is fun experiencing these little surprises. Apparently for some literature classes, such as my two, they take their final exam before winter break during the class time since they actually have time to take it. Three hours should easily suffice for in-class essays. The rest of the departments wait until after winter break for their final exams, which by the way span about two-three weeks. Yeah kiddies, instead of one week of hell they have drawn it out here. I will take my 7:30 am finals over three weeks after break if it means one week before I go home for the holidays. Sadly France is never going to adopt the idea of final exams before Christmas break, not fully. This is, according to my awesome theory, due to the month of August. For France August is vacation month. Their entire economy revolves around this concept, literally towns shut down for that month since everyone is off somewhere. Their school semesters don't start until the middle of September in order to correspond with this vacation time. Thus in order to make the fall semester longer they hold exams after winter vacation, otherwise the semester would be even more crammed. Pity, but oh well. I only have to deal with this "after break" system one more time in life. That's right DGS*, I'm glaring at you. What else did I do today? Well I saw my adorable children of course. They were, as always, adorable. Actually Anne and I reviewed "the wish" in English. Oh goody, this sucks for French students. You see in French the wish or desire is often expressed using their Subjunctive tense. Guess what is no longer used in English? Rather we use a complex, two part, past form to express wishes. For example, first in French, je souhaite que tu ne sois pas un crétin. Translation, I wish you weren't a dumbass. Crude, crude Marebear. This non parallel drives French students, like Anne, crazy from frustration. Sorry buds, but we English speakers told subjunctive to kick it a long time ago. If it makes France feel any better, French subjunctive is bitch for us. I then returned to my dorm for some fish, spinach, and rice accompanied with Dead like Me. Maybe not the best show for digesting food, but it's better than a Jackass eating contest or almost any stunt performed by Stevo. Oh Johnny Knoxville, you rock my world.

*DGS was the high school that I attended in my former youth.